Wednesday, 3 September 2014

While in the UK we have seen some of this criminalisation and violence by police at the anti-fracking protests, there has been good news with regard to many of the protestors going free.
In other parts of the world, folks are not so lucky.
While mining companies are gearing up to devastate Lapland, in Guatemala, indigenous Mayans are fighting against gold mining and being targeted by private security firms. This does not bode wellfor the protest mobilising against the "Monsanto Bill" passed by the Guatemalan Congress.
In France, the fight for the Sivens forest continues with protestors being injured to make way for "development".
And in Tasmania, protestors face massive fines and mandatory prison sentences to try to deter them from protecting Australia's ancient forests from logging.
The common theme here is capitalism. Commodification of the planet and ecocide for profit. It is the same story with our Oil and Gas industry, it is all about the money.
Unless we change this, I see no real hope

Wednesday, 20 August 2014

So it is Earth Overshoot Day already, from here on in we are eating in to the planet's "capital"
In 2000, Earth Overshoot Day happened in October, in 2014 it is August.
What can you say, as climate change hits home, as extreme weather, sea level rise and ocean acidification reduce food capability, then I see this just getting earlier and earlier. As we eat into the planet's capital faster and faster each year, I fear the consequences.

Sunday, 3 August 2014

Dr Jason Box, who runs the Dark Snow Project, and colleagues have discovered "vast methane plumes escaping from the seafloor of the Laptev continental slope. " , as a release from Stockholm University puts it.
Chief Scientist Orjan Gustafsson speculates on his blog "...that the leaking methane from the seafloor of the continental slope may have its origins in collapsing methane hydrates"
That is pretty terrifying! Especially, when you add in the Siberian "hellmouths" as well.
While our politicians are still talking about a 2 degrees C mean temperature rise, while more oil has been found in the West of Shetland (and has become an issue in the Independence debate), while we subsidise fracking and drilling, drive our cars, heat our homes and run our mowers....

Thursday, 24 July 2014

A spate of recent posts on the Patheos site, which question whether pagan environmentalism has failed and discuss climate change and some of the issues it raises from a pagan perspective have got me thinking....
I think that the question does not just apply to pagans, although there is an added twinge. I think the question is, has environmentalism failed?
I would answer yes to this, while some things have been achieved, it seems, too little, too late. We are already facing a 4-6 degrees C mean global temperature rise by 2100, the ocean is acidifying and the arctic is melting releasing methane and leading one to question how all that fresh water will affect oceanic heat circulation. The effects on the whole lifeweb look to be catastrophic. We are still living as if this is all a fantasy, our governments are still in thrall to the oil and gas industry, we are still mowing our lawns, driving our cars, buying our "toys" as if it will go on forever.
We are also herded by fear, in the UK our government's wide definition of terror threatens bloggers and internet activists. and in many other countries, the situation is so much worse .
While groups such as Deep Green Resistance and The Underminers , see this and specifically are trying to bring the system down to save what can be saved, they are classed as radicals and terrorists, sort of green-jihadis, the powers-that-be and most of the rest of us do not see any real alternatives to our current paradigm, sickening though it is.
I suppose the supplementary question is, if environmentalism has failed, what now?
Honestly, I wish I knew....

Tuesday, 3 June 2014

Biodiversity Offsetting is being discussed in the UK, Personally I believe it is likely to be a huge disaster for British Wildlife. When you look at the permission to destroy Robin and Starling nests or the ongoing ecocide for sport in the Scottish Highlands , with raptor poisoning and all the other ills.
In my opinion, we need to be gearing up to fight this, through legal and other means, we need to be preparing our blockades and spikes, and other Direct Action tools, as it seems (and you only have to look at fracking in the UK) that our governments are not serving the people, but serving the corporate.

The underlying thing is that our whole economic system is ecocidal, turning the lifeweb into commodities for our consumption, it is not "on the label" in most cases, but we are responsible, our lives are built on the backs of others and if we do not end our addiction, it will kill us, and so much else